


The Giant

by invisible_doorknob



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: ALL THE ANGST, Alternate Universe, Angst, Character Death, F/M, Not A Happy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:08:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22772299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/invisible_doorknob/pseuds/invisible_doorknob
Summary: He keeps his heart in a box.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	The Giant

**Author's Note:**

> I had this idea almost from the first moment I saw this scene. NOT A HAPPY STORY.

Something goes wrong.

He never finds out what it was. It doesn’t matter, whether it was a slow leak in a seal, or a life support failure, or some hidden biological flaw.

What matters is that when the lifepod comes to rest on the deck of his ship, Rey is dead.

Kylo isn’t surprised. He felt her die, that gossamer connection parting like a wisp of steam; there was no panic, no rise of fury or fear, so it happened quietly. She may not even have seen it coming.

When he looks down into the pod, she looks peaceful. Asleep. Lashes brushing her cheeks as if he might tap on the metal and wake her...or open the lid and press his lips to hers, like the old stories his mother would read to him.

(It was usually the princess who woke the prince, the way she told it, but the principle was the same.)

But nothing will wake Rey. She is gone.

He remembers, vaguely, the rage that took him, a red and despairing tide. How he tore a swathe through the ship, indiscriminate death; how he finished in Snoke’s throne room, where it all revealed itself as the petty, pointless maneuvering and posturing that it had always been.

When he was done, there were no more guards, and no more Snoke. Nor Hux, either. There was half a ship’s complement of personnel, and an empty throne.

He takes it, because it is after all his destiny to rule. But he lets the Resistance go. There are too few of them, now, to be worth the trouble; and with Skywalker’s apprentice gone the old man is toothless.

Kylo is aware that he is something of a figurehead, except when he bothers to exert his power. He can’t bring himself to care. The only thing that truly matters is the box in his quarters.

He has it maintained, carefully, with triple power backups so that the preservation routines are never interrupted. Rey rests in her lifepod, hair spread over the headrest, lips closed in the hint of a smile. She is safe there. And he allows no dust to gather on the viewport, so he can always see her.

The casing is designed to withstand fire and vacuum, so it is always cold under his cheek, and his tears slide right off it.

That’s fine.

He wouldn’t want to dirty it.

* * *

In the end, inevitably, another Resistance arises. Kylo sends out armies against it, even leads them into battle a few times, but his heart isn’t in it. His heart is preserved in a box, far from the front lines.

His generals fight, but the chaos of rebellion wins out. Most of his ships go out in bursts of glory, but when his flagship is disabled, he knows they are coming for him. They need a symbol of their victory, after all.

He wouldn’t care, except they will separate him from her, and that will not do. When word comes that they have boarded, he retreats to his chambers and bars the door.

It is a simple matter, to disengage the locks; the lid opens as if it had closed only an hour before. Kylo tugs off his glove.

Her cheek is cool and soft beneath his fingertips. The spot of moisture that appears above her brow is a nuisance, and he wipes it away impatiently.

There’s plenty of room. He settles beside her, pulls her into his arms; she is pliant, fitting back against him as if she were made to, which she was. As he was made for her.

Kylo presses the control, and the lid seals into place. He can hear the hiss as the pumps resume their work, and taste the acrid gas as the oxygen seeps away.

He closes his eyes.

~End~


End file.
